Can you help please identify each tasks and the predecessors and duration and then draw an Activity on node network diagram that shows the ES and LS, EF and ES. I am confused about the predecessors for activity g, i, and the second q. It seems the predecessor for g is D and C and for i is g and h. Help me solve this.

C A S E D. U. SINGER HOSPITAL PRODUCTS CORP. Herbert F. Spirer D. U. Singer Hospital Products Corp. has done sufficient the earliest possible time; they have requested a com- new product development at the research and develop- plete plan up to the startup of production. Marketing ment level to estimate a high likelihood of technical and other plans following startup of production are to be success for a product of assured commercial success: prepared separately after this plan has been completed. A long-term antiseptic. Management has instructed Project responsibility is assigned to the division's Singer's Antiseptic Division to make a market entry at Research and Development Group; Mike Richards, the project scientist who developed the product, is assigned Copyright Herbert F. Spirer. Reprinted by permission. responsibility for project management. Assistance willCASE 431 be required from other parts of the company: Package ing Task Force, R & D Group; Corporate Engineering; Corporate Purchasing; Hospital Products Manufacturing "You are naive if you think that you can just start Group: Packaged Products Manufacturing Group. right in finalizing the formula," said Docent. "You must first develop a product rationale (a). " This is a formally Mike was concerned about the scope of the project. defined process according to company policy. Market- He knew from his own experience that a final formula ing expects inputs at this stage, manufacturing expects had yet to be developed, although such development their voice to be heard, and you will have to have ap- was really a "routine" function. The remaining ques- provals from every unit of the company that is involved; tions had to do with color, odor, and consistency addi- all of this is reviewed by the Executive Committee. You tives rather than any performance-related modification. should have no trouble if you do your homework, but Fortunately, the major regulatory issues had been expect to spend a good eight weeks to get this done." resolved and he believed that submission of regulatory "That certainly stretches things out," said Mike. "I documentation would be followed by rapid approval as expected to take 12 weeks to develop the ingredient they already had a letter of approval contingent on final formula (b) and you know that I can't start to establish documentation. product specifications (c) until the formula is complete.C) That's another three weeks." But there were also issues in packaging that had to be "Yes, but while you are working on the product spec- resolved; development of the packaging design was one ifications you can get going on the regulatory document of his primary concerns at this time. Ultimately, there tation (d). Full internal specifications are not required will have to be manufacturing procedures in accordance for that work, but you can't start those documents until with corporate policies and standards: capital equipment the formula is complete." selection and procurement, installation of this equip- "Yes, and I find it hard to believe that we can push ment and startup. through both preparation of documents and getting Mike was concerned about defining the project un- approval in three weeks, but Environmental swears it ambiguously. To that end, he obtained an interview with can be done." S. L. Mander, the group vice-president. "Oh, it can be done in this case because of the prepa- When he asked Mander where his responsibility ratory work. Of course, I won't say that this estimate of should end, the executive turned the question back to three weeks is as certain as our other time estimates. All him. Mike had been prepared for this and said that he we need is a change of staff at the Agency and we are in would like to regard his part of the project as done when trouble. But once you have both the specifications and the production process could be turned over to manu- dthe approval, you can immediately start on developing facturing. They agreed that according to Singer practice, the production processing system (g)." this would be when the manufacturing operation could "Yes, and how I wish we could get a lead on that, but produce a 95 percent yield of product (fully packaged) the designers say that there is too much uncertainty and at a level of 80 percent of the full production goal of 10 they won't move until they have both specifications and million liters per year. regulatory documentation and approval. They are offer- "But I want you to remember," said Mander, "that ing pretty fast response; six weeks from start to finish you must meet all current FDA, EPA, and OSHA regu- for the processing system." lations and you must be in compliance with our internal "They are a good crew, Mike. And of course, you specification-the one I've got is dated September and know that you don't have to delay on starting the pack- "RD78/965. And you know that manufacturing now- aging segment of this project. You can start developing quite rightly, I feel-insists on full written manufactur the packaging concept (e) just as soon as the product ing procedures . " rationale has been developed. If my experience is any I this discussion, Mike felt that he had enough in- judge, it will take a full eight weeks; you'll have to formation about this aspect to start to pin down what had work to keep the process from running forever." to be done to ac e to achieve these results. sults. His first step in this ef- "But as soon as that is finished we can start on the font was to meet o meet with P. H. Docent, the director of research. design of the package and its materials (f), which usually takes about six weeks. Once that is done we can start de- veloping the packaging system (h), which shouldn't take inTasks which must be accounted for in a network plan are iden- longer than eight weeks," concluded Mike. At this point ed by lower-case alphabetic symbols in parentheses, Refer to he realized that although Docent would have general432 CHAPTER 9 / RESOURCE ALLOCATION knowledge, he needed to talk directly to the Director of project of March 10 and asked Mike to project a Manufacturing. completion date with his submission of the plan. The "The first step, which follows the completion of the committee's request implied that whatever date Mike ydevelopment of processing and packaging systems," came up with was acceptable, but Mike knew that he said the Director of Manufacturing, "is to do a com- would be expected to show how to shorten the time to plete study of the facilities and equipment requirements complete the project. However, his task in making the (i). You won't be able to get that done in less than four schedule was clear; he had to establish the resource weeks. And that must precede the preparation of the requirements and deal with calendar constraints as capital equipment list (j) which should take about three- best as he could. quarters as long. Of course, as soon as the develop- To this end, Mike had to get an estimate of resources, ment of both the process system and packaging system which he decided to do by making a list of the activities are completed, you could start on preparing the written and asking each group involved what was their level manufacturing facilities procedures (q)." of employee input. The results of this survey are shown "But," said Mike, "Can I really finish the procedures in Exhibit 1. For example, activity a takes 8 weeks and before I have installed the manufacturing facilities (p)?" requires 12 worker-weeks from R&D, or an aver- "No, quite right. What you can do is get the first phase age of 1.5 workers for the entire 8-week duration of done, but the last three of the ten weeks it will take to do activity a. that will have to wait for the installation of the manufac For the purposes of overall planning, the accounting turing facilities. department told Mike that he could estimate a cost of "Then this means that I really have two phases for $600 per week per employee. This would enable him to the writing, that which can be completed without the provide a cash flow forecast along with his plan, which manufacturing facilities installation (q), and that which the chief accountant said would be expected, something has to wait for them (q')." that Mike had not realized. "True. Now you realize that the last thing you have Mike knew that it was customary at D. U. Singer to to do after completing the procedures and installing the provide the following as parts of a plan to be submitted equipment and facilities is to run a pilot test (r) which to the executive committee: will show that you have reached a satisfactory level?" 'Yes. Since that must include debugging, I've estimated A. Statement of objectives. a six-week period as adequate." The director of manufac B. Work breakdown structure. turing assented. Mike continued, "What I'm not sure of is C. An activity-on-node network. whether we can run all the installation tasks in parallel." D. A determination of the critical path(s) and the dura- "You can let the purchase orders and carry out the tion along the path. procurement of process equipment (k), packaging E. An activity list, early-start schedule, slack list, and equipment (1), and facilities (m) as soon as the capital equipment list is complete. The installation of each of master schedule. Assume that every activity begins these types of equipment and facilities can start as soon at its early start, regardless of resource constraints. as the goods are on hand (n, o, p)." F. A period labor requirements table for each group and "What do you estimate for the times to do these the project as a whole. tasks?" asked Mike. The director of manufacturing es- G. A cumulative labor requirements table for each timated 18, 8, and 4 weeks for the purchasing phases group and the project as a whole. Include line graphs for each of the subsystems in that order and four to illustrate the cumulative loads. weeks for each of the installations. "Then I can regard H. A schedule based on the best leveling of labor my job as done with the delivery of the procedures and requirements that could be achieved without length when I show my 95 percent yield," said Mike, and the ening project duration by more than 14 percent in director of manufacturing agreed, but reminded Mike calendar days. that none of the purchasing cycles could start until the I. A cash flow requirements graph for the project. capital equipment list had been prepared and approved assuming that charges are uniformly distributed (j) which he saw as a three-week task. The executive committee of D. U. Singer Hospi- throughout the activity. tal Products Corporation set a starting date for the